I ask my wife if she plans on going to some of the sales on Black Friday this year. “What fun would it be to go by myself” she says. “Who said anything about going by yourself”, I tell her boldly!
For me, Black Friday has always been me and the kids sleeping in while my wife and her sister get some good deals on a few Christmas presents. Since moving to Arkansas, we’ve managed a few times to go to Houston for Thanksgiving where her sister lives, but this year, it just didn’t work out that way, so Black Friday shopping took on a sense of responsibility this year.
We made arrangements for the girls to stay with Grandma while my wife and I went looking for a few deals. After getting stuffed, we went home and got the girls ready for their sleepover with Grandma, then my wife took them to Grandma’s house. The plan was for my wife to come back home, we look online at some places we wanted to go and then then get some sleep before heading out for some fun shopping together.
The first part of the plan went great! The kids were gone, my wife and I were openly talking about presents for the girls, which is something we usually have to do by text or email, but one thing we hadn’t really planned on was happening… time! It was starting to get late and we were watching a Christmas movie before going to bed.
We were faced with a decision… wanting to be at Best Buy by 3:00 am on Black Friday, we needed to leave no later than 2:30 am. It was already after midnight, so staying up or getting an hour of sleep was really starting to become a debate. Needless to say, we decided to lay down for an hour and 45 minutes. I hit the snooze once, so it was really closer to 2 hours. We didn’t make it by 3:00 am, so we decided Target was our best bet.
We drove by Best Buy and, as expected, the crowds were already lined up with more people running to join from at least 3 different parking lots. It was almost 4:15 am, so people were really starting to make their moves now. We just kept heading to Target.
The parking lot wasn’t as full as Best Buy, but trust me, they were starting to come pretty quick by this time. We sat in the truck for a little while waiting to decide if we wanted out in the cold, and it turns out, another 200 people probably landed in line before we finally got the desire to get out in the cold. Not the biggest mistake, but a mistake none the less. We should have jumped in line as soon as we got there.
Standing in line for 45 minutes is always fun when there are people involved. Some of them were in pajamas still. Some looked like they just rolled out of bed and went straight to the car… It was interesting to say the least!
Once 5:00 am rolled around, it took about 3 minutes for us to make it in the store. It was awesome! I’ve never seen people running in a store before! Next time my wife and I will probably forget about the shopping cart and sprint directly to what were looking for. Maybe I can wear some type of fuzzy slippers that will allow me to slide on the floor, adding a little drama to the already dramatized store! For fun, of course.
We went to the toy section via 20 different isles and finally found what we were looking for. VICTORY!!! Or was it? Upon closer inspection, the scooters we were looking for were actually all gone. The ones we had in the cart were $35.00 and the ones we wanted were $17.00! So to justify getting the more expensive scooters, we established the fact that they had more options than the cheaper ones. At least we got something out of it.
After looking and purchasing a few more items for the kids, we stopped at Best Buy and Walmart and headed home for the day! After getting some much needed sleep, my wife picked up the kids and the rest of the day went pretty smooth. After reflecting on my first Black Friday, I have to admit, it was pretty wild.
Can’t wait until next year!